Japan's independent journalism on trial with Tanaka

It doesn't take a baseball bat to silence a reporter in
Japan--increasingly the blunt weapon being wielded by corporations, power
brokers, and politicians is the court gavel.

In May of this year, a writer for the weekly magazine Shukan Kinyobi was sued by one of
Japan's most powerful nuclear industry figures, for a total of 67,000,000 yen (US$858,000).
The thrust of the lawsuit is that the term used to describe the plaintiff is
libelous.

This is a landmark case because it is the first time that a
journalist has been sued over an article, but not the magazine which published
it. It is a clear attempt to bully the individual reporter and to create a rift
between freelance journalists and the periodicals that run their stories.

Reporters working for major newspapers or media outlets in
Japan are usually part of Japan's press
club system, which allows them great access to government agencies and
protects them to some degree. Newspapers like the Yomiuri Shimbun and others have the power of millions of readers
and ample finances to shield their reporters from lawsuits of this ilk, but independent
journalists do not.

The individual being sued is Minoru Tanaka, age 52, an investigative
journalist who has long written about Japan's problematic nuclear industrial
complex, known as "the
nuclear village," composed of utility firms, politicians, advertising
agencies, and retired bureaucrats. His article--which touches upon the deep
collusion between the president of a nuclear safety company, Japan's nuclear
industry, politicians, and possibly even organized crime--was published in the
Dec. 16, 2011, issue of the magazine. .

All the materials Minoru Tanaka used for his article were available
in the public domain. The plaintiff, Shiro Shirakawa, president of the nuclear
safety company New Tech, launched a lawsuit against Tanaka in May, complaining
that the word Tanaka had used in his article to explain the role of Shirakawa
as a nuclear "fixer" was insulting and defamatory. In Japan, the term fixer means someone who arranges
profitable business deals often using dubious methods. It has a negative connotation
but is also used in the sense of the word "middleman" or "organizer" in the
popular vernacular.

The plaintiff demanded Tanaka pay a total of 67,000,000 yen
in damages and attorney fees.

This act of targeting one single individual and the fact
that the plaintiff is much more powerful financially and politically makes the
case a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP, according to
Tanaka and the publisher of Shukan
Kinyobi, Hajime Kitamura.

The lawsuit is in the preliminary stages and a verdict is
expected next year.

After the latest hearing at the Tokyo District Court, Tanaka
said, "The mainstream Japanese press has still not touched the story, probably
for fear of financial damages."

He said one of the reasons that support for him is not
widening at a rapid pace is because of the existence of the press club, or the
Japanese Kisha Kurabu system.
"The major media outlets that are part of the press club system do not welcome
freelance or individual writers because they want to monopolize information for
themselves. They are not very supportive of individual journalists," Tanaka
said.

Off the record, a reporter for a major television network in
Japan affirmed this, saying, "There is no upside to writing about this case and
the plaintiff has ample resources to make further nuisance lawsuits."

But a growing number of people are supporting Tanaka today,
because it is not only his problem, but a problem for freedom of the press in
Japan. Many reporters think there should be laws to limit or suppress SLAPP
lawsuits. For the time being, it's never been more expensive or risky to be an
independent reporter in Japan, especially for those who write under their real
names rather than pen names or initials. Already, some weekly magazines have a
practice of writing articles about scandals without using the name of the main
persons involved, while naming others unlikely to sue or cause problems. A
classic example of this was the Shukan
Shincho article in September of 2008, about the lavish birthday party of
the Yamaguchi-gumi crime boss, Tadamasa Goto, attended by some of Japan's
famous singers and celebrities. The celebrities in attendance were named; the
crime boss was not.

The detrimental effect of the lawsuit could be immense.
Unfortunately, the mainstream Japanese media is more concerned about the
short-term financial costs of reporting on the trial, with very little consideration
of the long-term costs for journalism in Japan.

Questions sent to Shirakawa via his firm on justification
for the lawsuit or why there was such a delay between publication and legal
action were not answered.

Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky
was an assistant correspondent for the Jiji Press in Geneva, covering the
United Nations. She is now a freelance writer in Tokyo who has written for AFP,
The Independent, Jane's
Intelligence Review and the Atlantic
Wire.

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